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Matthew is mentioned in the Gospels and seems to have been a tax collector. Since this would have been a responsible position, it is possible to assume that, at the time of Jesus (around 30 CE), he would not have been a young man. Perhaps he was born a little earlier than Jesus himself. According to The Bible he was still alive at the time of the crucifixion. It was unusual in those days for commoners to live beyond 50 years of age, so on the information contained in the Bible, Saint Matthew probably died within a decade or two of the crucifixion. Many Christians believe that this is the same person who wrote the Gospel According to Saint Matthew.

However, we do not really know who wrote the Gospel According to St Matthew. From as early as we have anything like a title for it, the title was given with the Greek phrase "Gospel according to...", using kata, which ordinarily means that the contents of the books were not written by the person named, but that the person named was used as the source. The use of "kata" means the authorship was assigned later, because the Gospels were originally unsigned.

Thus the author we now know as Matthew was different from the Matthew mentioned in the Gospel. Some scholars say that Matthew's Gospel was based on Mark's Gospel and was written between 80-100 CE. The most we can say is that this St Matthew may have lived into the early years of the second century.

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10y ago

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